


To Speak of Apologies

by VespidaeQueen



Category: The Avengers (2012), Thor (2011)
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-06-29
Updated: 2012-06-29
Packaged: 2017-11-08 20:29:50
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,236
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/447222
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/VespidaeQueen/pseuds/VespidaeQueen
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Tony Stark doesn't really do apologies, but when he does do them, he does them badly.</p>
            </blockquote>





	To Speak of Apologies

**Author's Note:**

> This piece takes place an indeterminate time after the end of Avengers, after Thor has returned from Asgard. Inspired by Historymiss and her fantastic Tony Stark.

 Tony Stark isn't exactly the apologizing sort. Sure, he can actually use the word “sorry” on occasion, normally after a night of drinking or a night of fighting crime, and sometimes he has to use it in a press release because Pepper gives him that _look_ that tells him if he doesn't actually play nice with the press something very _bad_ will happen. Also, Tony really does like to be on Pepper's good side, and if a half hearted, staged apology to whichever company who got their building smashed while some sort of villain rampaged through the streets while he tried to stop them is what gets him at least partially on her good side, then he'll do it every once in awhile. Not _all_ the time, of course, because he's got a reputation and apologizing all the time just isn't good for that.

Except now he's actually got to apologize to Thor (again) for something related to that crazy brother of his, and he actually has to  _mean_ it.

(Well, he probably doesn't  _really_ need to mean it when he says it, but Bruce is pretty adamant about the part where he actually  _should_ be apologizing to the big alien-god guy and, truth be told, Tony actually feels a  _little_ guilty)

(Not  _that_ guilty)

(Okay, maybe the  _tiniest bit_ )

This is the third, maybe fourth time that Tony's found himself needing to apologize to Thor about  _something_ more serious than just tricking him into thinking trains are giant monsters that Midgardian's hunt for fun (which he didn't actually believe) or that cell phones required that you yell into them for the sound to carry (which he  _did_ believe, and which a number of people will forever be upset at Tony about, because Thor can be  _really_ loud). At this point, if Tony counted his best friend as the person he'd most needed to truly apologize to, Thor would be his best – no, wait, really it would be Pepper (who he probably owed more apologies than he could ever give and really he has no idea why she still want to be around him because he can sort of admit that he is, in fact, the biggest of narcissistic jackasses), and then right behind her it would be Rhodey, and  _then_ maybe Thor, though he might have to duke it out with Steve for “most in need of a mass quantity of apologies from Tony Stark.”

But, regardless, he owes Thor an apology, a  _real_ apology, but Tony Stark is  _incredibly_ bad at apologies. In a way, he'd rather take on Loki again then try his hand at a real apology. Then again, Loki is, of course, at the heart of this whole “Tony Stark needs to apologize to Thor” business, because for whatever reason the big guy still loves his asshole of a brother, and there's no way to hurt him more than through his brother.

Honestly, Tony can't really understand why Thor hasn't just given up on Loki. If Loki had been  _his_ brother, Tony probably would have punted him to the corner and never looked back by this point. Or, well, locked him up with magic suppressing handcuffs, thrown away the key, and then walked away never to see him again. Thor had done the first, but that last one? Nope and no, and Tony really  _didn't_ get it.

So,  _apologies_ . For Loki related things that Tony probably shouldn't have said around Thor so sooner after whatever had happened when the big guy took his brother back to Asgard. He'd been incredibly withdrawn since he'd been back, and if there was one thing that Tony had learned about Thor (from both the little time he'd been around him as well as what Jane Foster had told him during the time when she'd been integrating Stark Tech into her giant wormhole machine), it was that the guy pretty much showed every emotion on his face, so if you  _couldn't_ read it...well, something was probably really wrong.

Tony doesn't really think he should have to apologize for any Loki-related really awful things he's said, but by the way Thor's face had gone completely, scarily blank after he'd said them (though he hadn't really noticed until Clint of all people threw something at him from all the way across the room)...well, yeah, he should probably at least try to make amends with Thor.

He'd though briefly of bringing pop-tarts with him again, to have something to divert attention from his likely to be awful apology, but last time Thor had yelled at him (and, really, he kind of wishes he'd yelled instead of going silent because Tony can deal with yelling a bit better) and he'd tried giving him pop-tarts, it hadn't really worked. Well, sure, Thor forgave him, but it really didn't have anything to do with toaster pastries.

It only takes him a moment to locate Thor – after all, Jarvis keeps track of all the Avengers, and the big guy hasn't bothered to leave the mansion – but it takes him a bit longer to actually approach him.

He's up on the roof, of course. Tony's mentally labeled the room as “Thor's sulking spot,” kind of like the third cabinet from the right in the kitchen is “Natasha's cabinet full of poisonous/deadly/potentially explosive stuff” and the attic has become “Clint's hawk-nest.” Bruce has picked out part of the lab that is  _his_ , and Tony's actually all right with everyone making themselves at home in the mansion, so long as Janet doesn't actually decide to bring any wasps into the place and make a beehive or wasp's nest or whatever for herself.

(Actually, he's never seen Janet with any sort of insect other than Hank, and they've  _all_ asked Hank at least three times each to keep his ants contained. Which is probably why he doesn't spend much time at the mansion, come to think of it.)

So, Tony catches Thor up on the roof, and stands kind of awkwardly behind him. And by awkwardly, of course, Tony means totally nonchalantly and is completely badass just standing there.

“Good view up here,” he says, which is probably not the best way to start the conversation. “Not as good as at the Tower, of course, but we're still reconstructing it. I kind of thought it would go a bit faster, but you know how it is when a crazy god leads a bunch of aliens into New York.”

And then he winces (internally), because Thor's shoulders get tenser and Tony really needs to work on this problem where his mouth just starts talking, because if he's planning on saying something along the lines of  _sorry_ to Thor, he probably shouldn't start out by rehashing some of the most pleasant bits of what got said earlier.

“What do you want, Tony Stark?” Thor says, and Tony knows enough about how the guy talks to know that back to using his full name after normally calling him just 'Tony' is kind of bad.

Tony takes a few steps closer and stands maybe a foot behind Thor. His hair is braided down his back, and is a good deal longer than last time Tony saw him (well, last time meaning before whatever happened when he returned to Asgard; it hadn't actually grown since the argument earlier that day); he toys with the idea of doing some sort of experiment to see just how fast Asgardian hair grows, but dismisses the thought for now. It's not exactly the time. “Look, I...wanted to say something sort of apologetic. About the stuff I said earlier.”

“There is no reason for you to apologize.”

Tony's mouth pulls to the side slightly. Of  _course_ he wasn't going to make this easy. “If there was nothing for me to apologize for, would you be hiding out here?”

There is a moment of silence, and then Thor lets out a long breath. His shoulders slump. “You are completely within your right to say what you did, and to take the actions that you chose to. You  _all_ have good reason.”

“Well,  _yeah_ . Your brother did kind of throw me off a roof and pull that mind control trick on Cli -” He stops, because,  _really_ , this is exactly what he was doing earlier. Except it was worse earlier. “Okay, what I'm  _trying_ to say is I'm sorry I said all of that around you.”

Thor's quiet. Too quiet.

“Shit, Thor. Say  _something_ .”

“...you are forgiven, Tony Stark,” he says, but the words come slowly.

Tony exhales sharply and sits down on the edge of the roof beside Thor. “Well, I guess that's what I came out here looking for, but...look, Thor, are  _you_ all right?”

Thor finally glances at him. “I am fine.”

“ _Bullshit._ I've seen fine, and that's not what you are.”

“Then why ask if you already knew the answer?”

Tony glares at him from behind his sunglasses. Big, difficult alien-gods. If he didn't actually kind of like Thor, he'd probably just give up now. “Because I want to give you a... _ah_ , crap, I'm really bad at this sort of thing. Look, do you want to talk about it? Whatever happened up  _there?_ ” He points up at the sky, trying to indicate Asgard. “Because you  _haven't_ talked about it, and we're all getting kind of worried.”

Thor closes his eyes and slumps forward so that his arms are resting on his legs. For a moment, Tony thinks he might almost fall off the roof. “I did not mean to worry any of you. I had...not thought...I have spoken with Jane about what occurred, and I did not want to burden any of you with my own heavy thoughts.”

“Well,” Tony says slowly, trying to tread carefully here (and Tony is  _not_ good at being careful), “at least you're talking to  _someone_ about it. But we're a team, you know. If you need someone else to talk to, I'm sure Banner's up to the task.” He pauses there. “Maybe not. But he'd be better than Clint when it comes to talking about stuff to do with your brother. Or maybe Steve?” He thinks on that for a moment.

There's really, when he thinks about it, no one in the Avengers for Thor to speak about this to.  _No one_ likes Loki – not like they should, when he tried to take over their world and tried to tear each one of them down – and Tony has a feeling Thor's problems are pretty much all Loki related.

Okay, so he can try a different track.

“You said that Loki was  _gone_ when we asked you,” he says, and watches Thor's face from behind his sunglasses. The skin around his eyes tightens and creases and the muscles in his jaw go taught. “Gone doesn't mean dead, does it?”

“No.”

“Okay...does gone mean that he's going to show up here again and try to take over the world? Because I'm not really looking forward to it.”

Thor shakes his head, braided hair bouncing slightly with the movement. “No, Tony Stark. I do not think my brother will be returning here.”

“So he's...gone.”

“Yes.”

Thor doesn't elaborate on it, and Tony's not sure he wants him to. He'd done a bit of reading into all that Norse mythology after the whole incident with the trickster god, and if stuff in Asgard was even half as screwed up as the stuff in the myths,  _gone_ could mean a whole lot of pretty awful things. 

Then, Thor gives this horrible, sad little laugh and pushes a stray strand of hair behind his ear. “I saw him, before the end,” he says, and Tony knows this is the point where he needs to stay quiet and just let Thor talk. “I told him...I told him that he would always,  _always_ be my brother, and that he would always have my forgiveness.

“I expected him...to stay silent. Or to tell me that he hated me,” Thor admits, and there is this terrible raw edge to his voice.

“And he...didn't?”

Thor shakes his head again. “No.  _No_ . He called me brother and told me goodbye. He said that...that he would miss me.”

And Tony isn't certain what to say to that. Well, he knows what he  _thinks_ , but that probably isn't at all what Thor wants to hear.

Because Loki is very like Tony, in ways that Tony doesn't even want to think about. And when Tony thinks about the whole thing, he's pretty sure that he knows what Thor is to Loki – a lifeline.

Thor, with his large heart and seemingly endless forgiveness when it comes to his brother, is always a way back. Loki counts on it – Tony would be anything on that – and probably knows that if he completely breaks from his brother, then there is nothing left for him. So if he offers just the slightest bit of remorse, the barest hint of lingering love for his brother, then Thor will never give up on him.

And Loki knows it.

But Tony doesn't say any of this. He awkwardly claps Thor on the shoulder. “You know,” he tells him, “I think you need a drink. My treat.”

It's not the best way to apologize. But then, Tony Stark doesn't really do apologies.

And neither, he thinks, does Loki.


End file.
